The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-04-30
RTLL ARP's LETTER.
LETTER II THE PHILOSOPHERS
> BEST VEIN.

,,ts some chickens that won't
or,tch up the flower seed in the
f,opt yard, nor walew in the fresh
,,,de beds, nor fly over in the garden
-, take the cholera, nor let the
hawks catch their young, nor set two
-. nest | want a dog that won't
lo,k half the night. and will stay at
Lora and know an honest man from
,,;af and won't track mud through
.hohau nor shake his tieas.around.
wont a COW that can be turned on
no GRASS and will have sense enough
n let the deuterongmus alone, as
robe calls it. / want some beds that
don't have to be made up, some dishes
tbat don't have to be washed, some
,anns that don't have tn be HE'D,
and 4 bookcase that the children
can't get out of order. | want hats
and bopnets that will hang them
selves up and stay there until they
ore needed, and some school books
and states and pencils that won't
hide aud scatter around. 4 want
niqno that won't have to be tuned
everv time that Mr.. Freyer comes
around-one that practice makes
nerfect and neither moths nor rust
doth corrupt. | want a knife and
mcneil that the little chaps will give
back to me when they borrow, and
some ink that will stay Oh the table,
and some pins that will stay in the
cushion, and o towel that won't show
the marks of hali-washed hands. |
want cooking stove that draws well
and bakes well all the time ana IL
cook that don't quit when she gets
ready and never gets sick or has a
misery somewhere, MOI takes the
pouts, and will scour the kitchen
floor without being told, ana will
give the dog some of the scraps from
the table. / want children and grand
children around me who don't know
how 70 cry and hardly ever get mad.
and don't tell tales anHare as smart
as the books they nm to study
if they are not that smart, then |
want books made easy. Professor
Sanford says his arithmetic has no
key but is stem winder. Well, if ii
has no key it oughtn't to have any
lock. ihave to work till ten O'Clock
every night helping my chaps to
prize it open, but we generally sue
ceed and | reckon it is all the better
that way. | do hate to have to sur
render to these children. 1t is Il
confession of judgment when ! can't
do Il sum or parsea sentence or trans
late their Latin. When ! get all
tangled up in figures or in algebra
and can't untangle and say, swell,
children, these modern books are all
htN W Iuc. w Y uoi uSNIt hoN
just like we used TO. | studied Smi
ley's arithmetic, which had the
single rule of three or the double rule
of three that did most every sum in
the world. And | studied Murray's
grammar and Days algebra, but now
adays they have got new books ana
short cuts and stem winders ana al
sorts of readers and electics and dia-
lectics and epileptics and other com
pllcated machines that don't exactly
understand And SO | get out of it
without losing very much parental
prestige. But the fact is, have for
gotten about as much as ] know
perhaps more and still have to keep
pegging away. About all the Latin
care 10 remember now is, "otium
cum dignitate," and / want plenty OF
that am going fishing tomorrow
and stay all day. | will rig up big
wagon and take the children along
aud basket of lunch and we Will
fish and frolic and gather flowers and
eat and talk and laugh and get dirty
all day long. The signs are all right,
Tor the dogwood is in bloom and the
wind is in the south and it is the
dark of the moon, and think ] see
myself just jerking the big bream'
rom under the log. Carl knows
every hole in the creek and he can
catch more fish than | can and don't
Try half as hard. Jessie wants to
pick flowers, and I've promised her
sne may wade in the branch, but her
mother don't know 1t. Jessie comes
10 me and Carl goes to his mother
ior favors. What pity it is that
grown folks can't be children once
OF tWion in unttln ouI ,rnIa IN tho